Bruce Rauner, Illinois’ new Republican governor, was inaugurated on Monday and is facing a daunting task: a $4 billion backlog of unpaid bills and a budget showing deficits approaching $21 billion in three years unless something is done.

The self-styled “Islamic State,” the terrorist group often referred to as ISIS or ISIL that was admittedly armed by the Obama administration and its Islamic “allies,” is best known for its savagery, beheadings, and all-around jihadist terror. In recent days, though, after reportedly announcing that it would be minting its own gold, silver, and copper currency dubbed the “dinar” and the “dirham,” the brutal Islamist outfit has also become known for its monetary policy. According to the group, which announced its new money system last week, the goal of the precious-metals currency is to “emancipate itself from the satanic global economic system based on usury.”

Much of the world continues to gain greater levels of economic freedom, according to a new report by the Canada-based Fraser Institute ranking more than 150 countries on everything from personal choice to security of private property. Research and studies show the trend should bring more prosperity, longer life spans, and more political freedom as well. But the news is less rosy for the United States — once the most economically free nation on the planet — as the policies of successive congresses and presidential administrations caused a steep decline in the U.S. position on the important index in recent years.